A number of different types of nucleic acids are currently being developed as therapeutics for the treatment of a number of diseases. These nucleic acids include DNA in gene therapy, plasmids-based interfering nucleic acids, small interfering nucleic acids for use in RNA interference (RNAi), including siRNA, miRNA, antisense molecules, ribozymes and aptamers. As these molecules are being developed, there has been developed a need to produce them in a form that is stable and has a long shelf-life and that can be easily incorporated into an anhydrous organic or anhydrous polar aprotic solvent to enable encapsulations of the nucleic acids without the side-reactions that can occur in a polar aqueous solution or nonpolar solvents.
The present invention relates to novel lipid compositions that facilitate the intracellular delivery of biologically active and therapeutic molecules. The present invention relates also to pharmaceutical compositions that comprise such lipid compositions, and that are useful to deliver therapeutically effective amounts of biologically active molecules into the cells of patients.
The delivery of a therapeutic compound to a subject is important for its therapeutic effects and usually it can be impeded by limited ability of the compound to reach targeted cells and tissues. Improvement of such compounds to enter the targeted cells of tissues by a variety of the means of delivery is crucial. The present invention relates the novel lipids, compositions and methods for preparation that facilitate the targeted intracellular delivery of biological active molecules.
Examples of biologically active molecules for which effective targeting to a patient's tissues is often not achieved include: (1) numerous proteins including immunoglobin proteins, (2) polynucleotides such as genomic DNA, cDNA, or mRNA (3) antisense polynucleotides; and (4) many low molecular weight compounds, whether synthetic or naturally occurring, such as the peptide hormones and antibiotics.
One of the fundamental challenges now facing medical practitioners is that a number of different types of nucleic acids are currently being developed as therapeutics for the treatment of a number of diseases. These nucleic acids include DNA in gene therapy, plasmids small interfering nucleic acids (iNA) for use in RNA interference (RNAi), antisense molecules, ribozymes, antagomirs, microRNA and aptamers. As these nucleic are being developed, there is a need to produce lipid formulations that are easy to make and can be readily delivered to a target tissue.